General Plan Contents

• Agricultural Preservation and Land Use
• Community Character
• Conservation
• Circulation
• Economic Development
• Housing
• Recreation and Open Space
• Safety

Agricultural Preservation and Land Use

The State Guidelines define the land use element as a guide to planners, the general public, and decision makers as to the ultimate pattern of development for the city or county at build out.  Napa County’s land use element is based on those guidelines and focuses on the preservation of agriculture, resource preservation, where and at what rate new development can occur and where commercial and industrial uses should be located.

As part of the General Plan Update process, changes may include a name change to Agricultural Preservation and Land Use. The revised element will incorporate Public Facilities (including schools, which is currently a separate element), Growth Management (also a separate element in the existing General Plan) and the 12 “urban bubbles” throughout the County.

As we begin to discuss this topic, we will post all news and documents to assist you, the public in understanding and contributing to this very important element during the General Plan update.

Community Character

The Community Character Element will address a variety of issues that affect the character of the County's urban areas and open space, including visual resources and aesthetics, noise, historic and cultural resources, and odors. Many of these issues have been the subject of intense discussion in the past, and have resulted in important decisions such as the County's Viewshed Protection Ordinance. This Element will bring together policies for these issues, as well as referencing other parts of the General Plan that have a direct effect on community character and quality of life including traffic and land use.

Conservation

The conservation element provides direction regarding the conservation, development, and utilization of natural resources.  Its requirements overlap those of the open-space, land use, safety, and circulation elements.  The conservation element is distinguished by being primarily oriented toward natural resources.
 
During the update process, the conservation and open-space element will be reconfigured so that open-space will be combined with recreation and the conservation element will be a separate element.  The conservation element will focus on policies that pertain to air and water quality, natural resources, water use, recycled water and water conservation as well as energy conservation.

Circulation

The circulation element is not simply a transportation plan. It is an infrastructure plan addressing all forms of circulation for people and goods. By statute, the circulation element must correlate directly with the land use element.The circulation element also has direct relationships with the housing, open-space, noise and safety elements.

The updated circulation element will cover all forms of transportation and transportation demand management. During the General Plan Update workshop series, participants indicated the importance of preserving the scenic and rural characteristics of current roadways, but also suggested that alternative modes of transportation be considered to ease traffic congestion through out the County, and suggested that certain roadway and circulation improvements should be made.

During the update process, many alternatives for circulation will be reviewed. All new information and reports relating to the circulation element will be posted here as they become available.

Economic Development

A new element has been proposed by the Board of Supervisors called economic development. The focus of this new and optional element is to develop policy that will promote: agriculture, tourism, economic diversity and the County’s relationships with the incorporated cities within Napa County. Marin County created an economic element with the intent to promote a sustainable local economy which will benefit present and future generations without detrimentally affecting resources or biological systems and which will result in balanced communities where residents have opportunities to enjoy the components of a high quality life. This new element will likely follow the same principle with a focus on ways to enhance the economic character of the valley

Housing

Housing element law requires local governments to adequately plan to meet their existing and projected housing needs including their share of the regional housing need. Housing element law is the state’s primary market-based strategy to increase housing supply. Unlike the other mandatory general plan elements, the housing element is subject to detailed statutory requirements regarding its content, and is required to be updated every five years, and subject to mandatory review by a state agency.

Napa County was unable to designate enough land in the unincorporated part of the County to meet the assigned regional housing needs allocation (RHNA). The County, with the support of the Napa County League of Governments (NCLOG), entered into agreements with the cities of American Canyon and Napa to transfer a portion of the County’s RHNA to each of the cities. These agreements allow urban growth to be directed to the incorporated cities where essential services are in place thereby allowing the preservation of Napa County’s agricultural heritage.

The historic agreements were recommended by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as a means to accomplish the county’s goal of complying with state law while maintaining the long term plan for the unincorporated area of agricultural preservation. While a significant number of required housing units were transferred, Government Code Section 65584, which allows the reallocation of a portion of the county’s RHNA, also requires that the units transferred are in proportion with the required units at the various income levels (low, very low, moderate and above moderate income). This reallocation left the county with a need to provide locations for production of 572 market rate units, 118 moderate units, 79 low-income units and 142 very low-income units. Historically, the market rate units are constructed at a rate consistent with the need for housing in that income range. To accommodate the remaining unmet need, the county has identified 14 sites throughout the county where affordable housing could be developed. The County’s Housing Element was adopted in 2004 and will be updated again during the General Plan Updated process.

Recreation and Open Space

The open-space element guides the comprehensive and long-range preservation and conservation of “open-space land”.  Open-space land is defined in statute as any parcel or area of land or water that is essentially unimproved and devoted to open-space use.

Along with the housing element, the open-space element has the most detailed statutory intent and, next to land use, is the broadest in scope.  Because of this breadth, open-space issues overlap those of several elements and the open-space element is commonly combined with other elements.

In Napa County, conservation and open-space are combined into a single element.  It became evident as the series of General Plan Update workshops progressed, that conservation policies should be covered in a separate element and that a recreation and open-space combination would better serve the residents of Napa County.

Safety

The aim of the safety element is to reduce the potential risk of death, injuries, property damage, and economic and social dislocation resulting from fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, and other hazards. Policies should address the identification of hazards and policies for emergency response, as well as mitigation through avoidance of hazards by new projects and reduction of risk in developed areas.

Much of Napa County is considered a high fire hazard environment and there is a high potential for strong ground shaking throughout the entire San Francisco Bay and Napa County areas. Currently, the General Plan has two elements that cover safety issues, Seismic Safety and the Safety element. Through the Update process, it is likely that the two elements will be combined into one comprehensive safety element.